Investors snapping up American homes on the market

Real estate investors are snapping up a bigger share of homes on the market in the United States as rising prices and stubbornly high borrowing costs freeze out many other would-be homebuyers.

Nearly 27 per cent of all homes sold in the first three months of the year were bought by investors – the highest share in at least five years, according to a report by real estate data provider BatchData.

Between 2020 and 2023, the share of homes bought by investors averaged 18.5 per cent.

All told, investors bought 265,000 homes in the January-March quarter, an increase of 1.2 per cent from the same period a year earlier, the firm said.

Despite the modest annual increase, the rise in the share of investor home purchases is more a reflection of how much the housing market has slowed as traditional buyers face growing affordability constraints, according to BatchData.